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Safe Act has ramped up panic buying of firearms and ammo across CNY

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David Steinberg, of Ra-Lin's, stands at the store's gun counter. The Safe Act, passed earlier this year in New York, and other proposed gun control laws at the federal level have resulted in unprecedented buying of guns and ammunition.
(Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com)

The sign on the gun counter at Gander Mountain’s Cicero store is a sign of the times.

“Wednesday mornings, any customer here for ammo, please take a ticket at the counter for your convenience and safety. One box per customer, one specific caliber.”

Bernie Reschke, of Mexico, said he recently arrived a half hour before the store opened and got the first ticket. Before the store opened a half hour later, 40 other customers had lined up behind him. Just before the doors opened, the store manager announced there were no .22 caliber rimfire bullets available that day for long rifles. Reschke said 25 men left immediately.

“I asked if he had any .30-06s (a rifle round) and he said he had a few boxes,” Reschke said. “When I got to the counter with my number in hand, I realized he didn’t have the grain (weight) bullet that I put in my rifle. I walked out with nothing.”

Gander Mountain staff referred all questions to Jess Myers, a company spokesman. Myers said, “At one point we were not limiting quantities of ammunition customers were buying. But we’ve since had to do so.” He declined further comment.

The recently passed state Safe Act, coupled with the push nationally for more gun control has created a huge, unprecedented surge in the purchase of firearms and ammunition locally and elsewhere across the country – sometimes by individuals who have little or no experience with what they’re buying.

David Steinberg of Ra-Lin's moves a Ruger Security Six handgun in a normally packed case on Sunday.Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

“The last couple of months, sales have been brisk. Particularly anything semi-automatic with a detachable magazine,” said David Steinberg, sporting goods manager at Ra-Lin Sporting Goods in Syracuse. “A lot of that has died down, though, as the supply of ammunition and (those types of) firearms has been exhausted.”

Gun sales across the area have been brisk -- particularly for anything semi-automatic and with a detachable clip. The buying trend, though, has been expanded to firearms of all shapes and sizes.AP

However, it’s not just assault-type or semi-automatic firearms that are continuing to be bought, according to local retailers. It’s handguns of all sorts, shotguns and rifles of numerous calibers. Interviews with customers at local stores the past couple of weeks revealed a fear of the “slippery slope”—namely that the Safe Act is but a step in the direction of all firearms being banned someday.

“Honestly, I’m new to guns. With the new gun laws coming out, I got nervous that I wasn’t going to get one,” said Tony Ordino, of Syracuse, who quickly added he’s not a hunter. He was just out looking for a firearm for his personal protection. “I didn’t get a semi-automatic. I bought a shotgun,” he said.

Along with the gun purchases comes the need for ammunition. Although the requirement under the Safe Act for background checks for purchases of ammo doesn’t kick in until the beginning of next year, customers the past several months have been stripping local stores of many of the supplies – specifically boxes of .22 rimfire bullets and up. A recent visit to the Walmart store in Auburn, for example, revealed that three of the store’s four shelves behind the gun counter were empty.

Many customers are trying to buy ammo in bulk amounts and many are hoarding what they buy. Undaunted, if they can’t find what they want in stores, a lot of gun enthusiasts are paying inflated prices at gun shows or searching online, customers and retailers said.

“I had one customer come in recently and buy nearly $1,000 worth of ammunition. He had a list and bought everything from .25 caliber to .45 caliber rounds,” Steinberg said.

Most stores don’t have restrictions on purchasing shotgun shells. Herb Philipson’s is an exception, where customers are restricted to three boxes per day.

A supervisor at the Herb Philipson's store in Geddes said this week the store ran out of shotgun shells for trap and skeep shooting -- the first time that has ever happened, he said.Dave Lassman |dlassman@syracuse.com

“We just ran out of target loads today – shells for trap and skeet shooting,” said Kevin Shupe, supervisor of the sporting goods department at the Herb Philipson’s store at the Western Lights shopping center in Geddes. “That’s the first time that’s happened since we opened three years ago. We’ve always had such a ridiculous supply that it’s never happened.”

A recent informal survey of six different local sporting goods stores showed most have put restrictions on the number of boxes of ammunition that customers can buy – that is, when it’s available..

When a new shipment of ammunition does come in, word seems to get around fast. Gun owners rush to the store to stock up. Some customers interviewed noted the website, www.gunbot.net, or the use of social media, such as Facebook, to find out and keep others informed of when local stores have certain ammunition in stock.

“You go to a place like Walmart and instead of you asking whether they have this or that, they’ll say let me tell you what we have. It’ll be shorter,” said William “Billy Bob” Lusk, who owns Seneca Marine Bait and Tackle in Watkins Glen. “It’ll be something like several different odd rounds, or some wacky hunting round. The main stream stuff? Forget about it. You can’t buy a . 357 round. I’ve had that on order from 20 different suppliers for the past several months. No luck.”

Interviews with more than a dozen customers at local stores indicated .22 caliber bullets are among the most in demand.

David Steinberg of Ra-Lin's fills empty 22 caliber ammunition shelves with 17 caliber ammunition on Sunday. Retailers and customers alike said .22-caliber rounds are extremely difficult to get. In most cases, stores just don't have them.Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.com

“That’s because it’s among the cheapest and most widely used,” said Kurt Brown, president of the 475-member Syracuse Pistol Club. “Just about every organization, youth organization of adult shooting league shoots them. They’re also used by people who want to hunt rabbits, squirrels and other small game.”

Before the buying scare started, Brown said “a brick” of .22-caliber bullets (10 packages of 50 rounds each) sold for about $20-$25.

“The last time I tried to get one from a distributor, my cost was $85 a brick. And once I paid freight, I was looking at $93. I can’t do that,” said Tim Nelson, of Intimidator Sports in Nedrow.

It doesn’t end with the lack of ammunition. Those who in the past tried to save money by reloading their own ammo – particularly competitive shooters who often go through hundreds of rounds in shooting competitions – are no better off.

Gun powder and primers for reloaded bullets are extremely difficult to get, local gun enthusiasts say. Many stores are out of them. And when it is available, retailers have put buying limits on customers, similar to ammunition purchases to prevent bulk buying .
This past Wednesday morning at Gander Mountain nearly 30 customers were on hand as the store opened at 9 a.m.

Charles Brown, of Camillus, was among those in line and wanted to buy a package of .22 caliber ammunition. No luck. He settled for a box of .243 caliber rifle shells, which he said he’ll use for deer hunting.

“I’m getting ready for the fall. It’s very hard to get ammunition,” he said.
LOCAL AMMUNITION SALE RESTRICTIONS
(When ammo is in stock.)

*Gander Mountain – Wednesday mornings, one box per customer of any specific caliber. Otherwise, it’s no more than 10 boxes of any ammo in supply per day.

*Bass Pro Shops – maximum of five individual boxes and one bulk package per customer. No restriction on shotgun shells.

* Dick’s Sporting Goods – No more than three boxes. If a bulk package contains 200 or more rounds, only one per customer.

*Ra-Lin Sporting Goods – no restrictions on number of individual boxes, but no bulk packages available.

*Herb Philipson’s – Three boxes of any caliber or gauge per day. One bulk package per day.

*Walmart – Three boxes of any caliber per customer. No bulk packages.

INTERNET RUMORS AND GOVERNMENT’S ROLE IN ALL THIS(The following story was written by the Associated Press)

The nation's 100 million firearms owners are driving the market for some 10 billion rounds annually, with demand and gun purchases both increasing the past several months, driven partly by fear that tougher laws will restrict the ability to buy firearms, said Lawrence Keane, whose National Shooting Sports Foundation is based in Newtown.

"There's a concern by firearms owners that this administration will pursue bans on products, bans on ammunition. ... It's not limited geographically to New York or anywhere else. It is nationwide," he said.

Sheriff's deputies (from Onondaga & Cayuga counties) practice handling firearms at the Elbridge Rod and Gun Club in this 2000 photo. They are using 45 caliber Glock pistols.Dave Lassman |dlassman@syracuse.com

Some government critics attributed shortages to federal purchases of bullets, accusing officials of trying to hoard a billion rounds and disarm the populace.

"Department of Homeland Security and the federal government itself is buying up ammunition and components at such a rate, it's causing artificial shortage of supplies for the regular consumer," said Jesse Alday, a state corrections officer who was buying a couple of boxes of primers at Hunter's Haven.

"They're buying it up as fast as they can, for reasons they're not officially willing to admit or go into. ... They're not willing to come up with any answers as to the reasons behind why they have enough ammunition on the U.S., on our own home soil, to wage a 25-year war," he said. "That's kind of strange."

Keane, whose group includes manufacturers, said the reports of massive federal purchases were not true.

The government routinely buys products in bulk to reduce costs, and Homeland Security has said the latest purchases are no different.

Last year, the department put out bids for a total of about 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years. The rounds are to be used for training, routine weapons qualification exercises and normal duty by various department agencies.

On a smaller scale, some local law enforcement agencies are also having problems getting ammo.

Jennifer Donnals, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, said the agency was still waiting on rifle and shotgun ammunition ordered in November.

In Phoenix, the Police Department has stopped providing officers with 100 rounds of ammunition per month for practice. Sgt. Trent Crump said 10 to 15 percent of the department's 3,000 officers, who are assigned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, had taken advantage of the ammunition for practice shooting.

In January, police chiefs in central Texas said they were having trouble arming their officers because of shortages of assault rifles and ammunition.

The major U.S. manufacturers are running shifts around the clock to try to meet increased demand, Keane said. The foundation projected $1.5 billion from ammunition sales in 2011 and $2.8 billion from gun sales, totals that more than doubled in a decade.

Stockpiling has also been fueled by false online rumors, such as one that purports a coming nickel tax on each bullet, which would triple the cost of a .22-caliber cartridge, said Hans Farnung, president of Beikirch's Ammunition, a retailer and wholesaler in Rochester, N.Y., that sells in seven states.

"I don't want to call them doomsdayers, but people get on these blogs on the Internet and they drive people's fears," he said. "They do not want to wait around and see."

The tax rumor was fueled by gun control proposals in Connecticut, California and Illinois.

This isn't the first U.S. run on ammunition. A spokesman for Walmart said the retail chain previously rationed in 2009, the year Obama entered the White House. However, sportsmen and tradesmen say the current shortages are nationwide, and the worst they've seen.